It’s fun to buy the YMCA! Mast Capital JV pays $10M for Palm Springs center as multifamily dev site

Mast Capital and partners The Spear Group and Rockpoint plan a 264-unit, garden-style apartment complex

Mast Capital's Camilo Miguel Jr., 2085 South Congress Avenue and rendering of Palm Springs Residences (Mast Capital, Google Maps)
Mast Capital's Camilo Miguel Jr., 2085 South Congress Avenue and rendering of Palm Springs Residences (Mast Capital, Google Maps)

A Mast Capital-led joint venture paid $10 million for an 18-acre YMCA property in Palm Beach County with plans to redevelop the site into an apartment complex.

Coconut Grove-based Mast Capital, in partnership with Fort-Lauderdale-based The Spear Group and Boston-based Rockpoint Group, wants to build 11 three-story buildings with 264 class A apartments at 2085 South Congress Avenue in Palm Springs, according to a press release.

The project, called Palm Springs Residences, is slated to break ground in July.

Seller YMCA of the Palm Beaches paid $95,000 for the site in 1968, according to records. The property has two social/fraternity halls completed in 1980 and 1983, a daycare center built in 1995 and a clubhouse finished in 2010. The buildings have a combined 24,214 square feet. The YMCA of the Palm Beaches has been providing youth services in Palm Beach County since 1917, according to the non-profit organization’s website.

The community buildings will be razed to make way for Palm Springs Residences. The YMCA is planning to relocate to Lake Lytal Park, about two miles away from the current community center, in partnership with Palm Beach County’s newly planned aquatics center, the release states.

Designed by MSA Architects, the new apartment complex will have one- to three-bedroom units. Amenities will include a fitness lawn, outdoor swimming pool, tot lot, dog park, linear park, lake, walking path, and electric vehicle charging stations. The partnership also plans to build a clubhouse with a club room, fitness studio, co-working space, a game room and smart parcel lockers, the release states.

The partnership saw an opportunity to build a multifamily project in Palm Springs because of heightened demand for rental housing in Palm Beach County, Mast Capital founder and CEO Camilo Miguel Jr. said in a statement.

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Palm Springs’ population grew by 42 percent to 26,890 residents between 2010 and 2020, the fastest growth rate in Palm Beach County in the last decade, according to recent U.S. Census data.

Rockpoint, led by co-founder and managing member Keith Gelb, also teamed up with Mast Capital in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. The firms are developing an 850-unit luxury multifamily component of a three-tower residential development that also includes a 397-unit condominium. The partnership paid $103 million for the land in December. Cipriani recently partnered with Mast to develop the condo component.

Rockpoint also owns a stake in a 178-unit condo project Mast Capital is developing in Miami Beach.

The Spear Group, led by principals Jeff, David and Daniel Spear, is a private real estate investment and development firm founded in 1966, according to the company’s website.

Mast Capital is on a roll, with acquisitions representing more than $2.5 billion in total project capitalization since 2020, which includes the YMCA deal and the Brickell development site, the release states.

Last month, Mast Capital and Starwood Capital Group launched sales of The Perigon, a luxury condo development planned for an oceanfront site in Miami Beach. Also in March, Mast Capital sold a recently completed 346-unit apartment complex on the Miami River to Aventura-based Cardone Capital for more than $100 million.